In many article handling and conveying operations, it is necessary to sort or separate the articles for conveying in a single file or seriatim along a conveyor, or placed on a conveyor seriatim. Certain improvements in apparatus for conveying articles single file are the subject of copending patent application publication no. U.S. 2006/0037838A1, as well as U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,474,493 and 5,740,899, the subject matter of all of which is incorporated herein by reference.
The apparatus of the foregoing patents and patent application publication are advantageous for many article separating and singulating applications. However, in certain product or article processing operations, the product may be a somewhat pliable, lumpy mass of soft texture, such as poultry carcasses or parts thereof. Such products are often somewhat difficult to separate from each other and to be spaced apart single file on a conveyor or on further processing equipment. The soft, somewhat sticky and pliable mass of such articles has, heretofore, rendered somewhat inefficient prior art article separating and processing equipment. However, the present invention overcomes problems associated with prior art apparatus, as will be appreciated from reading the summary and detailed description which follows.